Museum wins bid to keep Manet masterpiece in UK

[August 08, 2012]  LONDON (AP) -- Britain's Ashmolean Museum says it has raised almost 8 billion pounds ($12.5 million) to buy an Edouard Manet masterpiece and keep it on public display.

"Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus" was sold to a private foreign buyer last year, but the British government blocked the sale under rules that allow public institutions the chance to buy works "of outstanding cultural importance" at knock-down prices.

The Oxford-based museum said it had raised 7.83 million pounds, enough to buy the painting. Most of the money came from lottery proceeds earmarked for cultural projects, with 1 million pounds from individual and institutional donations.

The portrait by the French Impressionist master has been in Britain since the artist's death in 1884.

The museum said it would send the painting on a national tour next year.

[Associated Press]

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